Rambling on

I hardly have time to watch any movies so I guess the next best thing thats happening to me is that I read the morning papers and howl ! Its actually not a bit funny but I am surprising myself every day by how close I am to blowing my lid. The 'Peace train' from Delhi to Islamabad got blown up on the 19th by a suitcase full of death that went off near Panipat. Some 68 people died, most were Pakis. Yup, I really do hate that word and all that it stands for but I cried when I read about the despair and heartbreak of families who were waiting for a son, a husband or a mother to come back home ! And the abject poverty of some and the situation where some may even not get to see the dead bodies. I watched on TV, next day the Paki Foreign minister Kasuri with wife in tow, arrive to grieve the dead and console the injured. I saw TV bytes of him visiting Safdarjung Hospital and praising the Indian Doctors. I wondered what he felt like to see his poor country men suffer and I felt reassured that he would facilitate those who were still looking for their lost ones. All that forgotten of course under piles of work, household chores, Rayyan's sickness, my own familiar head aches till yesterday afternoon I arrived to catch a meeting at the Taj with a couple of eager 'gora's' who were just back from a very stimulating visit to the Reliance Retail outlet. I have a rather weird way of traveling from the most engaging conversations to anything else that catches my fancy - on the next table, or out of the window, or on the carpet. I need to make quite an effort to bring myself back to where I am supposed to be...but the point is that over enthusiastic discussions about how many crates of onions they saw being taken inside the Reliance Store, I suddenly noticed Mr Kasuri and wife on the next table with their entourage. They seemed waiting for someone and it may have been the merriest group in the lobby ! Mrs Kasuri would admire her manicure, adjust her pashmina and then walk importantly around the lobby making loud noises while Mr Kasuri sat fixed to his seat almost as if he was taking a nap after a heavy meal. She would occasionally whisper things to him and laugh and then again get up for some more kissing in the air to some 'TV anchorish' looking women who probably were setting up an interview. They were all a vulgar bunch of indifference. A few looked bored and sleepy while Mrs Kasuri looked as if she was about burst into a song and a dance ! Maybe I was being judgmental as usual. ....On another table was a large collection of a sikh family sitting quietly staring at everybody else. I saw a short plump girl in a tight sleeveless kurta and a plump sikh boy, looking very pleased with himself sitting next to her on a large table under the canopy. The other women with them looked pensive while 2 old men were huddled in one corner in a secret dialogue. Obviously there was some match making happening here. I looked at the plump girl again. She was staring down at her red shoes. Even Mrs Kasuri was wearing Red stilettos. When I glanced back at the Paki table they were all gone towards the lifts with the camera crew following them. The goras were asking us which other market in the world would draw a parallel to the Indian retail market. We started explaining to them that India was not just one country but many...